


What You're Afraid to Say

by PaintingWithDarkness



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Bluepulse, Crack, Cute, Fluff, Humor, I Tried, I'm Sorry, M/M, Romance, Speedbuggy, This is poorly written, revealing feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 04:00:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21403843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaintingWithDarkness/pseuds/PaintingWithDarkness
Summary: Jaime's had some feelings for Bart for awhile now that are more than just platonic in nature, but he's unsure of how to go about telling the speedster. Will Bart turn him away, or will he reveal that he feels the same? Jaime might never know the answer if he doesn't tell Bart the one thing he's afraid to say.
Relationships: Bart Allen/Jaime Reyes
Comments: 3
Kudos: 37





	What You're Afraid to Say

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bluepulsebluepulse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluepulsebluepulse/gifts).

> Written for a friend who's struggling to find motivation, and because he requested it XD
> 
> Hang in there hermano, you're almost done.

“¡Estamos en casa!” Jaime yelled out as he and Bart walked through the door of his house. They had both just gotten out of school for the day, and Jaime had invited the younger teen over to work on some homework together. 

“¿Bart está contigo?” Jaime’s mother called back. It sounded like she was in the kitchen. 

“Sí, Mamá.” Jaime slipped off his shoes by the door and directed Bart to do the same. By now Bart had been over to the Reyes’ house enough times that he knew the drill. No shoes on the carpet. Mrs. Reyes was adamant about that rule. He’d already seen Jaime get yelled at for wearing his sneakers on the carpet and did not want to risk invoking the wrath of Mamá Reyes for himself. 

“Bart y yo vamos a trabajar en la tarea en mi cuarto,” Jaime continued. He locked the front door behind them and then ushered Bart up the stairs. When they were about halfway up, Mrs. Reyes addressed Bart directly. 

“Bart, hijo, do you want to stay for dinner? I’m making enchiladas.” 

Bart nearly swooned. Mrs. Reyes enchiladas were his favorite. There was no way he could turn the offer down. “Thanks Mrs. Reyes! I’ll call the Garricks to let them know I’m staying.” 

He and Jaime finished going up the stairs and made their way to Jaime’s room at the end of the hall. Once they were inside, Bart flung himself and his backpack onto the bed with a groan. “Homework is so moded,” he complained. 

Jaime let out a little chuckle and shoved Bart’s leg to the side as he plopped down onto the bed beside the sprawled out speedster. Bart was taking up nearly three-fourths of the space, and his red backpack was taking up the other quarter. “Scoot over, hermano. You’re hogging the bed.” Jaime swung his own blue and grey backpack up onto the bed to sit beside Bart’s own. He attempted to roll the younger boy over to create more room for himself, but Bart was being stubborn. 

“Come on, hermano,” Jaime grunted, still trying to move him. “We have to get our homework done.” 

“But whyyyyy?” Bart went limp, making it impossible for Jaime to do anything. 

The older teen sighed. “You’re only a Freshman. Your homework should be easy. Wait til you get to be a Senior like me.” 

Bart let out a whine. “You mean I have to do three more years of this?” 

“Hey, if I can survive it, so can you.” Jaime poked Bart in the side, causing the younger boy to squirm. Bart was ticklish  _ everywhere _ . It gave Jaime an idea.

With as much speed as he could muster for a non-speedster, Jaime brought both of his hands down to attack Bart’s sides. The auburn-haired boy absolutely squealed. 

“Jaime!” he laughed. Bart wiggled in an attempt to get away from Jaime’s ticklish fingers, but Jaime wasn’t ready to let him escape so easily. 

“You gonna scoot over now?” Jaime asked as he continued running his hands over Bart’s ribs. The younger boy’s chest was heaving with laughter and he had a cute pink flush tingeing his cheeks and the bridge of his nose, nearly hiding the spattering of freckles Jaime knew were there. 

“N-never!” Bart managed to get out through the giggling. He tried to push Jaime away with his own hands, but the older boy caught his wrists and pulled them up above his head while he continued tickling with the other.

When Jaime looked down and drank in the sight of Bart’s flushed face, he caught himself blushing a little too. If he was being honest, he’d had a little bit of a crush on the younger boy for awhile now. Bart was intelligent, funny, brave, loyal, kind, and gorgeous. Even with his hair tousled, and cheeks pink from exertion, Jaime couldn’t help thinking he was beautiful. The delight burning away in his jade irises, and the boisterous giggles spilling from his throat caused a warm feeling to burst forth in Jaime’s chest. Every time he was around Bart, he couldn’t help feeling pure, unadulterated happiness. Bart was the silly, fun-loving light Jaime needed in his serious, hard-working, dull life. 

“Jaime!” Bart squealed. He was trying his hardest to break free from the grip Jaime had around his wrists. “S-stop! I’m gonna pee!” He was still laughing hard, squirming under the onslaught from Jaime’s hands. 

Eventually the older teen took pity on him and let him go. Bart rolled over, creating more space for Jaime on the bed, not wanting to encourage his friend to continue his tickle-torture. Once Bart recovered and managed to catch his breath, both of them settled in next to one another and pulled their homework from their school bags. 

Bart sprawled out on his stomach and kicked his legs up into the air, crossing them at the ankles while Jaime chose to sit next to him with his legs folded, one knee resting against Bart’s hip and lower back. Jaime had his math notebook out, and a calculator sitting beside him on the opposite side, trying to puzzle his way through a set of calculus problems, meanwhile Bart was tapping away at his Spanish worksheet with his pencil, creating a rhythm to ground himself while he ran various translations through his head. Neither subject was a strong suit for the boy who was doing it, but Bart was a math whiz, and Jaime had grown up speaking Spanish, so they tended to help each other out when they came to standstills in their work. 

After about an hour of working on their respective subjects, Bart sat up and held out his Spanish work packet to Jaime. “Can you check these for me?” 

Jaime set down his pencil and took the packet from Bart. “Sure.” Bart sidled up against his side, resting his head on Jaime’s shoulder as his caramel-colored eyes scanned over the answers. He had to admit, it was a little difficult focusing on the work packet with Bart pressed against him like that. Jaime knew that Bart was just a touchy-feely person in general, but sometimes it really felt like the speedster was trying to send him signals. Bart seemed to be in almost constant contact with him, and some of the comments that he made really left Jaime wondering what exactly Bart’s intentions were. He didn’t want to read too far into it though. He knew his own feelings for the younger boy were likely clouding his judgement. It was possible that Bart just acted that way around everyone. It was too risky an assumption to act on in Jaime’s opinion. He needed solid evidence that Bart felt the same way about him before he was willing to make a move. For now, he would have to settle with being the speedster’s best friend. 

He read over the answers on Bart’s work packet silently, trying to keep his breathing and heart rate at steady paces. He didn’t want to tip Bart off as to what exactly his proximity was doing to him. Bart seemed perfectly comfortable tucked against Jaime as he was, like it was just something that friends did on a normal basis, but Jaime was really starting to struggle with maintaining his composure. 

“Uhm, hermano,” Jaime cleared his throat, hoping he didn’t sound too flustered. “This one right here,” Jaime pointed to the specific question, “should be ‘avergonzado’. Not ‘embarazada’.” 

Jaime felt Bart shift as the speedster looked down at the problem. “Oh,” he hummed. “Are you sure?” 

Jaime nodded. Bart made common mistakes like this all the time. 

“You wrote, ‘The boy is pregnant.’ You wanted it to say, ‘The boy is embarrassed.’ right?” 

Bart lifted his head from Jaime’s shoulder. “How does ‘embarazada’ mean ‘pregnant’?” he asked. “The two don’t even sound the same.” 

Jaime picked up the block eraser that had been sitting by his own homework and offered it to the younger boy so that he could correct his mistake. “It’s a false cognate,” Jaime said. “It’s a common mistake. The word you want is ‘avergonzado’.” 

“Spanish doesn’t make any sense,” Bart complained as he fixed his answer. 

Jaime chuckled. “You’re doing a lot better though. When you first started, I had to correct almost all of your answers. Now you’re getting most of them right.” 

Bart shrugged and handed the packet back to Jaime so that he could finish reviewing the rest of the answers. As Jaime got to reading, Bart resumed his position on the older teen’s shoulder. 

The next error Jaime caught was on the last page. Bart had forgotten to add a tilde over the ‘e’ in ‘él’. Not a huge mistake, but one that Jaime wanted to correct so that Bart wouldn’t make the same mixup again. 

“Bart,” Jaime said. “You forgot the accent over the ‘e’ here.” He pointed down at the word. Bart didn’t respond. 

“Ese,” Jaime tried again, “You wrote ‘el’ instead of ‘él’.” He gestured to the problem again, but still received no response from the Freshman. 

“Bart?” Jaime turned his head so that he could look at the younger boy to determine why he was being ignored. As he did, the action caused Bart’s head to slip from where it had been previously resting on his shoulder. In response to being jostled from his position, Bart made an unhappy noise, and then shifted  _ closer _ to Jaime, literally climbing into his lap before settling down again. 

Jaime froze.  _ Bart was asleep. _ The auburn-haired boy had passed out in the midst of Jaime reviewing his homework. Now Jaime was trapped. He essentially had two choices. He could a) shake Bart until the younger boy woke up, creating an embarrassing situation for the both of them, or b) wait until Bart woke up on his own, saving Bart from embarrassment, but doubling it for himself. Both were fundamentally terrible options, but Jaime didn’t have any others. 

Jaime gently poked Bart’s bicep, earning an incoherent mumble in response. When he did it for a second time, Bart simply turned and nuzzled his face right into his chest. It nearly made Jaime melt into a puddle. Bart was adorable. 

Jaime quickly gave up on his plan of trying to wake the younger boy. He would just have to wait for Bart to wake up on his own, and bear all of the embarrassment when it came. For now though, he would enjoy the opportunity he’d been given. Granted, it was selfish, what with Bart not knowing his real feelings, but Jaime couldn’t help indulging himself. This opportunity may never come about again. 

Slowly, Jaime ran his fingers through Bart’s soft, auburn hair. The locks slid between the gaps of his fingers like silk. The motion also brought out the faint scent of strawberries and wildflowers, which Jaime knew were attributed to Bart’s shampoo. It was exactly like he had imagined. 

It was embarrassing to admit, but Jaime spent more time daydreaming about the speedster than was probably healthy. He was helplessly in love with Bart. And Jaime realized how ridiculous that sounded (he was not a huge believer in ‘love at first sight’), but there wasn’t any other way he could describe it. Bart was perfect. 

Jaime loved the way Bart could make him laugh and smile like no one else could. He loved Bart’s sense of humor, even when he did make overly-used puns that caused him to roll his eyes. He loved that Bart was willing to stick by his side, even after all that he had been through in his scarring future. He loved that Bart was willing to risk his own life to save him, over and over again. He loved Bart’s intelligence, and his ability to come up with unique, silly, out-of-the-box ideas. He loved Bart’s laugh, and his enthusiasm, and the endless supply of energy and passion he exuded whenever he was doing something he enjoyed. Jaime loved his hugs, and the warmth that was created between them whenever Bart decided to sit closer to him than was usually allowed. He loved Bart in every aspect, and he only wished he had the guts to just tell the speedster how he felt. 

Against his better judgement, Jaime leaned down to place a kiss on Bart’s forehead. Unfortunately, that was also the time Bart decided to open his beautiful, sparkling jade eyes. 

Jaime reeled back immediately, red staining his cheeks so deep he could  _ feel _ the heat. Bart just blinked up at him in confusion. 

“Jaime?” he asked. 

Jaime averted his eyes, refusing to look at Bart. He was flustered beyond belief. 

The younger boy sat up and gave a stretch. It was only after he finished, and was fully back to consciousness that he realized their predicament. 

“Oh, sorry,” Bart apologized, climbing out of Jaime’s lap. “I must have fallen asleep on you.” He crawled a respectable distance away and then sat down again across from Jaime on the bed.

Jaime didn’t understand how Bart could be so calm about it. He was acting as though he  _ hadn’t _ just woken up in his best friend’s lap, and everything was still perfectly normal. Jaime on the other hand, was internally freaking out. Was it just him or was there some strange sexual tension in the air now? Was he reading too much into it? Why wasn’t Bart freaked out? Surely if he had the same feelings for Jaime as he did for Bart, Bart would be flustered too, right? 

“Jaime, are you okay? You’re turning really red.” 

Jaime felt like he was going to start crying. What was wrong with him? Why couldn’t he just treat the situation calmly like Bart, or like an accident even? Why was he so embarrassed by his feelings? Bart was a pretty understanding person. Surely he wouldn’t throw away their friendship because of Jaime’s little crush on him. Jaime knew Bart was a better person than that. Even if he didn’t feel the same way, Bart would still be his friend. So why was he so afraid?

“Look Jaime, I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable just now. I didn’t mean to.” Bart apologized. It only made Jaime feel worse. He knew he had to bite the bullet and just get everything out into the open. If he didn’t, he was going to explode. 

“I love you, Bart,” Jaime blurted out. “And it’s okay if you don’t feel the same way about me. I understand. It’s kind of dumb of me to say, because we’re only friends, and you probably don’t return my feelings, but I don’t know if there’s any other way for me to say it. I really really love you, and I’ve never felt this way about anyone else in my life. I know it’s unfair of me to burden you with my feelings, but you’re a very special person to me Bart, and I’m terrified of losing you. Me admitting this might have just scared you away, and you might not want to be friends with me anymore, but I can’t live without you in my life. So please, even if you don’t love me back, continue to be my friend. I promise I won’t make it weird,” Jaime babbled, “but I just needed to get this out into the air, because it’s not fair of me to keep my feelings hidden from you either. You deserve to know how I feel about you.” 

“Jaime.” 

Jaime tangled his fingers into the duvet. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Bart. He was afraid of the expression he’d see. Would it be disgust? Anger? Confusion? 

“Jaime.” 

Did Bart hate him now? Would Bart still agree to be his friend? What if he’d made Bart uncomfortable?

“Jaime.” The senior felt warm palms on either side of his face, lifting it so that he was forced to make eye contact with Bart. The younger boy’s face was perfectly neutral. 

“It’s okay,” Bart said. “Your feelings aren’t stupid. And they’re not a burden. It makes me really happy to know that you feel this way about me. I’m glad that you told me.” 

Jaime tried to look away, but Bart wouldn’t let him. He could feel tears welling up in the corners of his eyes. Bart hadn’t said he loved him back. 

“Is it okay if I show you how I feel about you?” Bart asked. “Languages aren’t really my best subject.” 

Before Jaime could even register what was going on, Bart’s lips were on his own. All he could do was blink in shock. Did this mean-?

The kiss was over almost as fast as it had begun. When Jaime looked at Bart, he noticed a heavy pink blush staining the speedster’s cheeks. “I love you, too.” 

“Really?” Jaime had to make sure he had heard right. 

Bart nodded his head, a shy, little smile working its way onto his lips. 

Jaime let out a disbelieving laugh, and launched himself at Bart in a show of uncharacteristic relief. He wrapped his arms around the speedster and drew him into another kiss. This time, both of them participated with equal enthusiasm. 

“You love me, too?” Jaime asked again when they broke away from one another. 

Bart let out a cute giggle. “I love you, too,” he said again. 

Jaime couldn’t contain his relief. Bart loved him. 

He leaned in again, this time slower than the two previous times, that way they could both actually savor the kiss. Jaime’s arms tightened around Bart, and Bart’s hands cupped Jaime’s jaw as they moved their lips against one another’s. There was no mistaking it now that they both loved one another deeply. 

They continued kissing, gradually getting bolder as each minute passed. Soon it turned into a make out session, homework completely forgotten. Papers fell off the bed as Jaime pressed Bart down to the mattress and pulled off the younger teen’s shirt, his own following closely behind. 

“You’re beautiful, Bart.” Jaime rejoined their lips, catching Bart’s answering moan with his mouth. 

“So,” Bart panted at him when they separated again, “Does this mean we’re dating now?” 

Jaime leaned down to place a kiss on the side of Bart’s pale neck. “Well, we just admitted that we love each other, and now we’re making out. What do you think?” 

Bart moaned at the feeling of Jaime’s warm lips on his body. “I’ll take it as a yes,” he answered, cockily. He tangled his fingers into Jaime’s hair and drew him back up for another proper kiss.

A harsh-sounding cough at the door was what ultimately caused them to break apart. Both of their heads whipped in the direction of the door, cheeks staining scarlet when they saw who was standing in the doorway. 

“I can see both of you are working hard on your homework.” Mrs. Reyes had her arms crossed, a hip cocked, and both eyebrows raised. “I didn’t know either of you were taking anatomy.” 

Jaime immediately scrambled off Bart. “We-we were just-!” 

Mrs. Reyes sighed. “Save it, mijo. I knew this is what you meant when you said you and Bart were going to work on homework in your room. I’m just disappointed I had to find out like this. Your father and I were wondering when you would finally ask Bart out. He’s such a wonderful boy.” 

Jaime blinked back at his mother in shock. He could not comprehend what he was hearing. 

“Dinner is ready, by the way.” Mrs. Reyes turned from the doorway, about to go back downstairs. “And Bart, honey, you might want to cover up that mark on your neck before going home. I have concealer you can borrow if you want.” 

Bart just nodded back at his new boyfriend’s mother at a loss for words. He consciously brought a hand up to cover said mark. 

As soon as his mother was gone, Jaime buried his face into his hands with a groan. “I’m so sorry,” he moaned. 

Bart actually had the audacity to laugh. “Sure that was totally moded being caught and all, but your mom is a savage!” 

Jaime glared the the younger boy, shaking his head in defeat. “Just get ready for dinner.” 

**Author's Note:**

> This is kind of trash, so I'm sorry. I tried.


End file.
